Environment and Sustainability

Resources to Improve Your Environmental Footprint

The Vancouver Division recognizes the importance of the health and wellness for our community. Below are Member Wellness resources and programs we hope you’ll find useful.

And, of course, if you’d like more information, please contact the Membership team at membership@vancouverdivision.com

Dr. Jay Slater
Physician Lead for Environment and Sustainability

Dr. Jay Slater explores the intersection of healthcare and environmental impact, highlighting how medical practices contribute to pollution, resource waste, and climate change. He emphasizes the need for sustainable healthcare solutions, including reducing plastic waste, minimizing pharmaceutical contamination, and lowering the sector’s carbon footprint. His work advocates for integrating eco-conscious practices into medicine to protect both human health and the planet.

Dr. Slater's Top Environmental Tips

Climate Corner for Mental Health

The first instalment of Climate Corner

In our offices we see increasing respiratory illness related to wildfire smoke and other pollutants. With our 1300 members making incremental changes in our own lives, our clinics, and our patients’ lives we can have a large collective impact. The Clinic Grants Program can help - funding to help you in your practice. You may have an eco-friendly project in mind. A ‘green’ audit of your clinic? Support to prescribe alternative COPD medications with lower carbon footprints? We encourage you to keep the environment in mind when you think about applying for this year’s grant.

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Climate Corner: Greening Your Practice

How can we influence the impact of healthcare on the environment?

Practicing medicine with a ‘planetary health’ lens has many of the same elements that we consider to be part of good primary care. Things like deprescribing unnecessary medications, avoiding repeat or low-value diagnostics, encouraging healthy behaviours, and addressing social determinants of health are good for our patients and good for the planet.

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Medications and Ecotoxicity

Climate Corner with Dr. Jay Slater

We know that many drugs end up in ground water, rivers, lakes, oceans and soil. So, what do we tell our patients about their unused medications? Don’t take really outdated medications, their efficacy can’t be assured. Don’t flush medications down the toilet or put them in the garbage, they’ll end up in the water system. Return what you don’t use, ideally to the pharmacy where they were dispensed, otherwise to one participating in a Take Back program. The website gives a list of nearby drugstores by postal code. Returned meds will be neutralized through incineration.

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Plastics and Health

Climate Corner with Dr. Jay Slater

As plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller particles, these microplastics and nanoplastics enter the body through ingestion, inhalation, and even skin contact. And evidence is growing that they are associated with numerous health risks. We can make personal choices about the products we buy and use, including the single use, disposable plastics in our workplaces. We can educate our patients about potential risk and encourage them to also take action. And we can lobby our leaders to make reducing plastic production and use a priority.

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Saving the Planet

...one puff at a time

One area of clinical practice where we can, collectively, make a positive impact on climate change is in the management of our patients’ asthma and COPD. Inhalers are a mainstay of therapy for these conditions, though they are not created equal in terms of their carbon footprint; the propellants in pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) are potent greenhouse gases. The future might hold new MDI propellants with much lower carbon footprint, currently under development. For now, we can offer choices in the available inhalers we prescribe. As always, we family docs will have to navigate patient tolerability and acceptance, and the cost of medications if/when they aren’t covered by Pharmacare benefits.

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Earth Day

Climate Corner with Dr. Jay Slater

We can consider every day to be Earth Day in the choices we make: Walk, bike or take public transit to work at least twice a week; Plan a local holiday rather than one requiring extensive transportation; Practice mindful consumption – factor in the carbon footprint of the food and products you choose to buy; Make three dinners each week that are entirely plant-based; Reduce the amount of single-use plastics at home and work; Work towards a greening your healthcare workplace; Adopt planetary health strategies in your clinical practice by, for example, reducing unnecessary tests and prescriptions; Get involved and learn from doctor organizations that view planetary health as being inextricably linked to human health.

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Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples

The unique health impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples

In Canada, June marks National Indigenous History Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the rich heritage and resilience of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. Beyond learning about the lives and traditions of the Indigenous communities on whose territories we live, work, and play, and re-committing to the principles of truth and reconciliation, there’s also an opportunity for us to consider the impacts of climate change on Indigenous peoples.

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Do You Have Something to Share?

If you’d like to contribute your expertise or knowledge as a guest or regular contributor, reach out to our membership team here.

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Environment and Sustainability

Resources to Improve Your Environmental Footprint

Dr. Jay Slater
Physician Lead for Environment and Sustainability

Dr. Slater's Top Environmental Tips

Climate Corner for Mental Health

The first instalment of Climate Corner

Climate Corner: Greening Your Practice

How can we influence the impact of healthcare on the environment?

Medications and Ecotoxicity

Climate Corner with Dr. Jay Slater

Plastics and Health

Climate Corner with Dr. Jay Slater

Saving the Planet

...one puff at a time

Earth Day

Climate Corner with Dr. Jay Slater

Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples

The unique health impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples

Do You Have Something to Share?

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Doc-to-Doc Member Tips